Of course, the attorney/client privilege is sort of the same....except that person is out in the open and there's two sides to his story.
Sorry...The seal of confession is good for no one.
Sac, think how this would play out in real life.
If the perp is not repentant, he would never mention it is a confession.
If the perp IS repentant, he would go to confession and the confessor would say, "I will not absolve you unless you turn yourself in to the authorities."
If he does, well and good.
If he doesn't, what is the priest supposed to do? It's likely he wouldn't even know who was confessing to him. Most confessions aren't face to face.
So the priest is supposed to ring up the cops and say what? "Somebody --- I don't know who--- said he sexually molested children, but I don't know exactly what he did, or to whom, or where, or how long ago."
And that benefits whom?
You're right, lawyers are so much more ethical than priests. Let's force people to violate their religious oaths, but by all means protect the lawyers. A lawyer, as we all know, would be the last person to pay off - ooops I mean settle - a nefarious charge against their client.
“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ “